PETALING JAYA: A red flag has been raised on the number of child sex offenders who are children themselves. They make up 25% of documented child sex offenders in Sarawak.
A total of 58 children were among the 233 suspects of sexual crimes recorded in Sarawak last year, according to police records.
The state’s Welfare, Community Well-being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Sri Fatimah Abdullah said this is “particularly worrying”.
She was speaking at the ministry’s Excellent Service Award (APC) 2019 in Kuching on Monday night, The Borneo Post reported today.
Of the 253 victims of sexual crimes in Sarawak last year, 199 or 78.6% of them are children. It is shocking to note that 51 of the 199 became pregnant.
“In order to address the issue of sexual crimes against children, the Sarawak Welfare Department (JKM) has developed a ‘Child Sexual Abuse Criminals Review System’ in the Children’s Register,” Fatimah said.
The system is to protect children by providing the facility for parents and agencies to review individuals to be hired for jobs involving children.
Fatimah said the ministry had also launched a set of standard operating procedures (SOP) regarding violence against women and children.
This is to ensure that cases would be resolved quickly, efficiently and accurately, especially in delivering the assistance needed by the victims, she added.
